Can’t Find That Email Message? This Tip Will Help.

The boss just asked you to find an email that contains a conversation between the stakeholders for an upcoming project. You’ve found many other emails with the stakeholders in the To: or CC: but you haven’t found ‘the’ email. It’s been 20 minutes and you’re thinking:

What was in the subject line?

Which stakeholder sent it?

Did I file it, or did I delete it?

These were some questions that would run through my head every time I was asked to look for a really important email. The process of finding an email took away many precious minutes and disrupted my schedule.

I realized one thing. I may have filed it in a folder, but some people are just not conscious about keeping the email chain intact. There is one subject line and 8 conversations in the email chain until one member of the team decides to write afresh with a completely different subject line (and often a vague one). Sometimes the subject line doesn’t reflect the conversation at all!

After doing some research on keeping my sanity during an email excavation and emerging victorious, I found out that you can actually edit subject lines for the emails you receive. If you’re working on Outlook, this could save you a lot of time.

Here is an example of an email I received. See how vague the subject line is?

Now here is my quick hack. Double click on the email and open it in a new window. Then put your cursor on the subject line and click.

Then think of a subject line you will be able to relate most to this topic. Since this email was about a new article on email management, this search term would be the first to occur to me if I was to dig out this email at a later stage.

Next, close the window. It will ask you if you want to save changes. Click Yes.

Lastly, do a search with the term you entered.

You’ll see how quickly you’re able to look for the email. As you receive more emails on a related matter, such as an ongoing project or a new client deal, you can use this method to edit headlines and group emails in this way and ease the process of searching for them.